Orlando Magic officials are bullish about Jonathan Isaac, the player they drafted sixth overall in the 2017 NBA Draft.

He possesses length, a promising shooting stroke and agile feet. People who know Isaac well also rave about his character.

But as the Magic’s decision-makers salivate over what Isaac’s arrival could mean for the future, those same decision-makers also must study the past. They cannot repeat one of the major mistakes of Rob Hennigan’s tenure as general manager. In those five years, especially during the period that Jacque Vaughn coached the team, the Magic failed to develop their young players properly.

Hennigan acquired Maurice Harkless, Tobias Harris, Andrew Nicholson, Kyle O’Quinn and Victor Oladipo through the draft or through trades, and those players once were regarded as key elements of the Magic’s rebuilding plan. And yet, how much did any of those players improve during their Magic tenures? The answer: very little.

One of the biggest issues, according to league sources outside of the current Magic hierarchy, was the Magic’s tendency to give youngsters playing time early in their careers without requiring the youngsters to earn that playing time.

New Magic executives Jeff Weltman and John Hammond must keep or add quality players with whom Isaac will compete for minutes. Coach Frank Vogel, entering his second year with the organization, must hold Isaac and other players accountable by basing playing time on performance.

A meritocracy in which young players must supplant each other or supplant veterans to earn minutes should force all the players to raise their games.

But slowly but surely, the franchise divested veteran players as it attempted to bottom out. Orlando traded J.J. Redick to acquire Harris, cast aside Hedo Turkoglu after Turkoglu tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and bought out Glen Davis’ contract. Point guard Jameer Nelson, once the heart and soul of the locker room, gradually found himself in an increasingly tangential role.

Those decisions opened easy minutes for Harkless, Harris, Oladipo and others.

And while Harris and Oladipo possessed strong work ethics, league sources think Harris and Oladipo would’ve benefitted from having to beat out quality veteran players for playing time. It would’ve forced Harris and Oladipo to raise their games through old-fashioned competition.

The same principle applies to center Nikola Vucevic. The Magic acquired Vucevic following his rookie season in the four-team trade that sent Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers. When Vucevic arrived in Orlando, he had no barrier to the team’s starting center job. Perhaps Vucevic would be better today, and play with more toughness, if he had encountered more competition at the beginning of his Magic tenure.

Few Magic youngsters enjoyed an easier path to playing time than Elfrid Payton.

The Magic handed Payton the starting point-guard job in mid-December of his rookie season after the team moved Oladipo back to his natural position of shooting guard. And once Payton became a starter, he faced no competition since the only other point guard on the roster was Luke Ridnour, a veteran who was past his prime.

The easy path to substantial playing time hampered Payton’s growth.

To be sure, the Magic’s youngsters have faced other major obstacles in recent years. Vaughn’s coaching tenure proved disastrous. And Payton and Aaron Gordon, who were drafted just before Vaughn’s third season, and the rest of the roster were hurt by a lack of coaching continuity after the team fired Vaughn.

This past April, the Magic fired Hennigan and assistant GM Scott Perry and replaced them with Weltman and Hammond.

Weltman, Hammond and Vogel now must avoid the same mistakes with Isaac that characterized the Magic’s approach to developing young players under Hennigan.

Isaac will turn 20 years old in October. Like the vast majority of players his age, he has significant work to do in order to reach his potential.

As the Magic roster stands now, the team will return two starters at the forward spots: Gordon at power forward and Evan Fournier at small forward. Isaac should compete against Gordon and Fournier in practice and should have to raise his game to unseat Gordon or Fournier as a starter.

“We’re going to talk a lot about basketball and what needs to be done on the court,” Vogel said. “But being on time and [learning] when you’ve got to come in and when the extra work has to happen and how you have to pay your dues as a rookie — those are all lessons that he’ll be learning this year.

“We don’t intend to take our team and say [to him], ‘Hey, take us to the promised land right now.’ We have a strong core in place that’s going to continue to grow, a young core. He’s going to come in and get his opportunities to learn without being asked to do too much. As he has small successes throughout his rookie year, we’ll gauge at that point how much more he can handle in terms of usage and minutes and role.”

The way the Milwaukee Bucks developed Giannis Antetokounmpo could provide a roadmap for the Magic.

Hammond, formerly the Bucks’ GM, drafted Antetokounmpo out of Greece 15th overall in 2013. As a rookie, Antetokounmpo started only 23 games and averaged just 24.6 minutes per game.

Isaac has been compared to Antetokounmpo often.

The Magic simply cannot afford not to have Isaac reach his potential.

Drafting him was just one part of the process.

The team now must do everything it can to help him harness his gifts.

“We have to have all the infrastructure in place on the court and off the court, and we have to have a plan for his development,” Weltman said.

“And it’s not one person. It’s not that there’s a player-development coach. It’s the whole organization, and that’s part of what we’re going to establish: the communication between all the hands that touch players and how we all help each other. The young guys on our team — their development is the most important thing in our organization right now.”

As the Magic learned over the last five years, acquiring talented youngsters is not enough.

Maximizing the youngsters’ talents is key.

One way to do that is to make rookies earn their playing time.

jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com

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In this postgame video, Mario Hezonja discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

In this postgame video, Mario Hezonja discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

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In this postgame video, Mario Hezonja discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

In this postgame video, Mario Hezonja discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

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In this postgame video, Evan Fournier discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

In this postgame video, Evan Fournier discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

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In this postgame video, Shelvin Mack discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

In this postgame video, Shelvin Mack discusses the Orlando Magic's 105-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

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The Magic sent point guard Elfrid Payton to the Suns for a second-round pick as the NBA trading deadline neared on Thursday.

The Magic sent point guard Elfrid Payton to the Suns for a second-round pick as the NBA trading deadline neared on Thursday.